restoring equity and humanity

A Favor to Ask: The EdSurge DILA Awards

For two and a half years now, I’ve been keeping this blog. In its infancy, it was titled “The Thinking Specialist: the Musings of a Heterological Teacher.” I titled it as such because I wanted to expose educators and parents alike to one of the most important jobs of an elementary school teacher: nurturing thinking in the classroom.

As the blog developed, I developed, too, and as a result, I had a period of time where I split this blog into two separate pieces, one that was meant for the “personal” side of me, and this one–the original–was meant for the professional side of me. I soon realized that this division of myself, this splitting of my persona into two, was neither authentic, nor helpful, especially in the context of a job that is so personal. And as a result, I remerged the blogs together, making my largest goal of writing authenticity, laden with an empathic tone and vulnerable undertones.

While I was nominated for this award last year, I knew that my entry lacked something, and I know now that what it lacked was the voice of my readers. Check out my entry from last year below:

And so this year, I’m asking a favor of those of you who have been so kind as to open your minds to my words over the past year or two:

I’m asking that you record a short video snippet (20-30 seconds) where you can share what you’ve gotten out of reading InspirED, to be used in my entry for the EdSurge DILA Awards. It doesn’t have to be much! Any little bit helps!

Above all else, I thank you sincerely for reading and following along as I discover more about teaching and learning each and every day.

If you’d like to submit a short snippet, record it using your computer and e-mail the file to paul.emerich.france [at] gmail [dot] com. If by some chance the file is too large, you can upload it to Google Drive and share it with me that way. Thank you!

Paul is a National Board Certified Educator in Chicago. His writing has been featured in a number of prominent education publications, such as EdSurge, ASCD's "Educational Leadership", and the International Literacy Association's "Literacy Today." He has also been featured in the New Yorker. He currently teaches third grade and loves every moment of it.